Chinese Business Review, Nov. 2018, Vol. 17, No. 11, 542-546 doi: 10.17265/1537-1506/2018.11.003 D DAVID PUBLISHING

Analysis on Employee Motivation Management of Haidilao From the Perspective of Confucianism Wulun

Huisi Chen South Business College, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong, China Yuran Zeng Business College, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong, China

It is a common belief that specific nations possess specific cultural traits that are resistant to change. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of Confucianism on the organizational management in Haidilao International Holding Ltd. (Haidilao), based on the Five Cardinal Human Relationships (Wulun). The paper also further explains the application of Wulun to daily staff management in Haidilao. It is expected to provide some unique philosophical perspectives to forge a richer understanding field of contemporary business management.

Keywords: Confucianism, Wulun, Haidilao, contemporary business management

Introduction Haidilao International Holding Ltd. (hereinafter Haidilao) is a chain of hotpot restaurants, which founded in Province, China in 1994, nowadays has been expanding all over the world. And in 2018, Haidilao filed to launch an initial public offering Initial Public Offerings (IPO) in . It is rare to witness that as a hotpot catering enterprises, which is less than 24-year history, Haidilao can successfully go into international market and be prevailing and appreciated among customers. In fact, there are a huge amount of hotpot restaurants operating in mainland China. And what’s more, hotpot does not require too much cooking skills, and easy to be copied. Thus, the success of Haidilao is well worth thinking. Why is Haidilao particularly so successful among contemporary companies in 21st century? Many scholars have attempted to answer this question from different perspectives, including high-quality customers’ service and the sound economic growth in China. There is no denying that Haidilao is known for offering a high-quality customer service. Chiu (2018) put forward that Haidilao is known for their focus on customer service and for offering a variety of free services and entertainment for customers that include: board games, snacks, and manicures for waiting customers. Therefore, we can truly accepted that the core factor contribute to success is their employees, the service provider. Burkitt (2013) emphasized on the investigation of

Acknowledgements: This paper is funded by the Key Program of the English Language and Literature of Guangdong Province, Project No: 2016GDTS001. Huisi Chen, master, lecturer, South China Business College, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong, China. Yuran Zeng, Ph.D., associated professor, Business College, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong, China. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Huisi Chen, South China Business College, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong 510545, China.

ANALYSIS ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION MANAGEMENT OF HAI DI LAO 543 employees’ motivation management from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs perspective. For the root cause, one must turn to the domain of culture.

Confucianism and Its Development in China Confucianism, also called as Ruism in China, firstly put forward by Chinese Philosopher Confucius (551-479 DC), who is a leading exponent and representative figure of Confucianism. He considered himself a recodifier and retransmitter of the theology and values inherited from the Shang (c. 1600 BCE-1046 BCE) and Zhou dynasties (c.Ԝ1046 BCE-256 BCE) (Pauluzz & Shen, 2018). Confucianism is a philosophy originated and had been developing in China, described as a humanistic and rationalistic religion and a way of governing. Confucianism has a great influence on people’s thinking and behavior, especially Chinese people. The development of Confucianism is not invariably smoothly sailing, in other words, is full of challenges and stumbles. There are two major suffering defeats for the Confucian development. One happened in Qin dynasty. The Empire of Qin burns books and bury Confucian scholars alive because of the unity of people thought, the nation. Until the Han dynasty, Confucianism began to revival. The other happened in the early 20th century, the intellectuals of the New Culture Movement blamed Confucianism for China’s weakness, abandoned it completely. Until the late 20th century, Confucian work ethic has been credited with the rise of the East Asian economy. Strictly speaking, there is hard to define the core value of Confucianism as there are 1,000 Hamlets in 1,000 people’s eyes. So, this paper merely emphasize on the Confucian ethical codes and Confucian morality which is definitely written on the books. Historian Hugh D. R. once said: With particular emphasis on the importance of the family and social harmony, rather than on an otherworldly source of spiritual values, the core of Confucianism is Humanistic (Pang, 2014). In Confucian philosophy, five cardinal human relationships exert a leading impact on human behavior. It also shows a virtue of the hierarchies within society: prince-minister (known as Jun-Chen in China), father-son, elder-junior, male-female, and friend-friend. Analects XII recorded what Confucius replied when Duke Jing of Qi asked about government governance: There is government, when the prince is prince, and the minister is minister; when father is father, and the son in son (Analects XII, 11, tr. Legge). Specific duties were prescribed to each of the participants in these sets of relationships. The five cardinal human relationships nowadays are still practiced by all the members of a society.

The Five Cardinal Human Relationships in Confucianism Works on Employee Motivation and Management in Haidilao Company The cultural trait on the employee has been marking into their mind for a long time, and that Confucius theory has been making influence on several generations. Haidilao succeeds through an unconventional customer service. And service is offered by their employee. In this part, the paper probes into how five cardinal relationships apply to the employee management. First, we analyzed the one of relationships, which is father and son relationship and has a positive effect, of five cardinals in Confucius theory. In Haidilao, part of employee salary will be sent to their parents account. It seems unbelievable and claimed that this action must be deprived of their kid’s right from Western management point. But in Haidilao, the effect of that is unexpected to remarkably effective. There are two extraordinary effects from Confucius management side; one is the children who are affected by Confucianism treat obedience to parents as a kind of fine traditional virtue. By sending part of employee salary to their parents, the parents will feel safe and know well anout their kid’s

544 ANALYSIS ON EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION MANAGEMENT OF HAI DI LAO working condition. The other is that the children always think in the way to make their parent be proud of them. From this side, this action will make the parents think that their kids are valued for the company, and encourage them to keep on performance well in the company; otherwise, the parents can find the difference by the amount of received salary. There is no doubt that it is an effective and efficient to increase the employment motivation. What’s more, apart from letting parents receive their kid salary, the company also offers the opportunity to the employee, who has been working for more than three years, to invite their parent to have a dinner for free in Haidilao. This activity and priority can stable employee team and meanwhile can meet their fulfillment to their parents. Do not forget they always keep in mind to make their parents be proud of them. On the other side, parents will enjoy the time with their kids sharing delicious food and know more about their working condition. The more parents know, the further they will encourage their kids to work hard in the company. Virtuous circle has been made in this part. The same effect also works on the relationship of couple (female-male) and brother or sister (elder and junior). The company will provide a private dormitory for the couple and offer the study allowance for their kids. Affirmatively speaking, Haidilao closely integrates the relationship of family elements into employee management. Next the paper focuses on the relationship of Jun-Chen. Compared with hierarchic structured corporate, Hailidao has a relative loosen hierarchic ranking, even fully decentralized. Management power is delegated to front-line employees. Employees can decide to send small toys to customers, give gifts to customers, and even send birthday cake to customers without any layer by layer reporting. What’s more, the company encourages employees to boldly develop their ideas and encourage them to innovate. Even name, the dishes are named by the names of the employees as a result of encouraging them to boldly develop their creativity. Another benefit is that employees enjoy their work, feel be trusted, and bring comfort back to their work and to their customer. That is the main reason why the customer once enters into Haidilao, they can feel a sense of comfort as the same as they are at home.

Conclusion The success of Haidilao enterprise is inseparable from the service, and the quality service is inseparable from the work infection of employees. This enterprise just closely integrates the relationship between Confucianism and Wulun into the work management, so that employees have no worries about life and work, and at the same time, bring satisfaction and honor. At the same time, employees are satisfied and can provide superior service to customers. This benign cycle has created the success of the company. This study is expected to provide some unique philosophical perspectives to forge a richer understanding field of contemporary business management.

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